“Helping Hand”, acrylics on 8×8″ hardboard panel with 2″ pine cradle, 2018
Exhibited in the April, 2018 show, “All About Animals”, at the Artists Gallery in Virginia Beach.
Original in Christina’s collection…
Prints and more available at Fine Art America.
Painted from a photo I took in the Chihuahuan Desert outside of Las Cruces, NM a few months previously. We were on a family hike to an obscure Wash Canyon, a wonderful gouge cut through the landscape, about as deep as a telephone pole and most of the way you can reach out and touch both walls. Unfortunately, the local Tarantulas tend to fall off the edge, into the canyon, and dehydrate before they can make it out. After we hiked out of the canyon and paused in a bit of shade, I noticed that She had found a still live Tarantula and carried it out. She gave it a little water from a canteen cap and released it in the shade, but I got the photo of it on her hand first. Tarantulas are non aggressive and won’t bite if handled respectfully, and they are fuzzy. As She says, “Think of them as tiny eight-legged kittens.”. I’m glad I had the opportunity to paint this commemoration of a Desert Rescue.